- What's up y'all?
I'm Joelle and for the next week,
I am going to attempt to eat
like the incredible, iconic, sensational
Korean boy band BTS.
My friend Jasmine over on Tasty recently made a video
detailing how to make one of each member's favorite dishes,
so I was inspired to deep dive even further
into the lives of seven of my favorite humans
and try to eat some of their favorite foods
throughout the week, dedicating one day to each member.
If I've learned anything from the many hours
of behind the scenes footage and live streams of them
I've watched, it's that they are hard workers and big eaters
so I need to go do some grocery shopping
and I'll see y'all soon.
(light music)
It only felt right to start out with RM's day,
who is kinda seen as BTS's leader.
He is a crazy talented rapper.
I thought I would start out the day
with a lovely Korean pastry.
This one is filled with sweet bean paste.
In a Vlive, Jimin and RM were making Dalgona coffee
and they were trying to whip it by hand
to varying degrees of success, so I decided to make my own.
Mm.
Whenever my family gets these, they disappear so fast.
So good!
Why don't we kick off the day with our BTS fun fact?
BTS stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan,
which translates in English to Bulletproof Boy Scouts,
and it's meant to symbolize how the group is immune
to the stereotypes, assumptions and critiques
about young people today.
I am so excited for lunch because apparently,
RM loves kalguksu, which is also one of my favorite dishes.
It is Korean knife-cut noodle soup.
Look at all the noodles.
I just splattered on my face.
When you order this at restaurants in Korea,
a lot of times, they'll bring it to you
in a huge bowl for the table.
I always reach a midday slump around three-ish,
so it's a good time for me to have my snack.
I know that RM is happy to eat gummy bears
at all hours of the day.
I think there was an episode of one of their reality shows
where he was literally eating gummy bears
first thing in the morning.
I don't think I could do that to my stomach,
but as an afternoon treat, why not?
So the last meal for RM's day is just as iconic as he is
and that is samgyeopsal, which is Korean grilled pork belly.
It's really common to get at any Korean barbecue place,
served with rice, normally to wrap in red leaf lettuce
or kkaennip, which is perilla leaf.
And you always have it with banchan,
which is all the little Korean side dishes.
You eat it all together and it is absolutely delicious.
But if you wanna be really pro with it,
you would take your leaf, take your meat.
One of my favorite things that I learned about RM
is that he taught himself English
through watching reruns of "Friends".
When I think about how many hours of K-drama
or anime I've watched with retaining next to zero
Korean or Japanese, that's really impressive.
Good for you, man!
Proud of you.
Jimin is one of the group's vocalists
and he is a beautiful dancer, and he's also known
for just having the sweetest little face,
which has given him the nickname Mochi,
which I feel like is very fitting.
Starting out super simple,
I think it was in a Buzzfeed video actually,
that Jimin said that he really likes eating fruit,
so I just made myself a cute little fruit platter.
Jimin said that he loves meat, particularly beef,
so I wanted to make some bulgogi,
which is really just marinated Korean beef.
But I didn't think it'd be enough on its own,
so I combined it in some bibimbap,
which is a Korean dish of mixed rice with a lot of veggies,
meat, and ideally topped with a sunny side up egg
and mixed in with a ton of gochujang.
Before I devour this entire thing,
our BTS fun fact of the day
is that BTS is the first Kpop group
to ever get their own custom Twitter emojis.
For me growing up, Kpop was not seen as cool,
so the fact that Twitter has acknowledged BTS
with their own custom emojis, I feel just speaks
to the global reach of BTS and how awesome it is
that nowadays, people all over the world can listen to Kpop
and really enjoy it.
So it is finally dinner time
and one of Jimin's favorites that is also a Korean staple
is kimchi jjigae, which is just a kimchi stew.
I figured since Jimin is a meat lover,
I would make mine with pork belly.
Apparently, Jimin can't handle spice super well,
even though he likes it, which is very similar to me,
so I always have my rice on standby.
Hot.
(Joelle laughs)
Mm, so good.
- Hot.
- Alrighty, good morning y'all and happy J-Hope day.
J-Hope is a literal ray of sunshine
and he's one of the group's main rappers and dancers.
So graceful, but then also hits so hard when he dances.
But in terms of taste, he says that he really likes
traditional Korean foods, so I'm starting off my day
with some fresh kimbap that I just got from the market.
It's a mixture of veggies, sometimes some meat.
This one has fish cake with rice
and wrapped in roasted seaweed.
It's super delicious and great for on the go.
Mm.
It's so good because it's just one bite
of literally everything you want in a meal.
I also feel like I must clarify.
I've seen people refer to this as sushi on the Internet.
It's not sushi.
Kimbap refers to the seaweed.
Kim is the Korean word for that seaweed,
and then bap is the Korean word for rice.
Another fun find at the grocery store,
an iced Americano with little Hobi's face on it.
I actually don't think I've ever had an iced Americano,
but I feel like in every single K-drama,
whenever anyone's at a coffee shop,
someone orders an iced Americano.
Ooh, it's not bitter at all.
Another traditional dish that I saw J-Hope really enjoying
on a Vlive is kimchi bokkeumbap, or kimchi fried rice,
and I feel like an OG way of making it includes pork belly,
of course your kimchi and some veggies
and topping it with a fried egg,
because I'm a firm believer that a fried egg
makes everything look and taste better.
Okay y'all, I am not a Tasty chef,
but I will say this looks pretty fire.
Look at how it jiggles.
This is another one of those dishes
that's great to make when you just have a bunch
of leftover stuff in the kitchen,
because you can put anything you want in your fried rice.
Okay.
J-Hope is actually the only member of BTS
that doesn't have his ears pierced,
so hope you all appreciate, I took out my earrings today
in honor of J-Hope.
While BTS eats a lot of traditional Korean foods
while at home, obviously they're on the road a lot,
and apparently one of their favorite places to come
when they're on the West Coast is In-N-Out,
and I feel like in almost every interview, J-Hope mentions,
- I love hamburger and Sprite!
- However, apparently I didn't do my research
well enough though, because when I came to In-N-Out,
they said they don't serve Sprite.
So I had to get 7 Up.
I'm sorry, J-Hope, I failed you.
But can I personally taste the difference?
No.
So I will enjoy it either way.
I'm actually here with my sister too.
Woohoo.
What do you think of the J-Hope burger meal?
- It's just a cheeseburger so it's great.
- And today's fun fact is that BTS almost wasn't called BTS.
They considered the names Big Kids and Young Nation
before landing on Bangtan Sonyeondan,
so I'm glad that they came to the consensus that they did.
Welcome to V's day.
V is one of the main dancers and vocalists for BTS
and he's also just generally known for being a hottie,
which I love for him.
One of his fan-appointed nicknames is CGV,
literally standing for computer graphics V
because they say he's too attractive to be real.
Anyways, I'm starting off the day with one of V's favorites,
which is apparently japchae, which is stir-fried noodles.
So normally this dish is made
with sweet potato starch noodles,
which I thought I had but I didn't have.
I'm actually using rice vermicelli noodles,
which is not what you're supposed to do,
but I used the same marinade
and a lot of the same stir-fried veggies.
Mm.
I will say it's not bad for my first try ever making this.
The noodles are actually seasoned
with a little bit of honey or brown sugar,
so they have a slight sweetness.
Also, some of y'all might be thinking,
"Why are you eating noodles first thing in the morning?"
Noodles are always an appropriate food to eat.
Fun but very random addition to today's challenge,
I read that V is a big fan of Gucci.
Kpop groups wear a lot of designer brands
in performances and in general.
But since V has been particularly vocal
about his love for the brand,
I asked my friend if I could borrow
her Gucci belt for today.
If this one thing will help me feel
one step closer to being that eighth member of BTS,
you know I had to do it.
Okay, so it is now lunchtime
and I feel like I can't make a BTS eating video
without including jajangmyeon,
which is Korean black bean noodles.
There's one very memorable clip that stays in my mind
of V having to eat jajangmyeon silently.
(light music)
The kind he was eating kind of looked like the instant ones,
Chapagetti, which is one of my favorite
instant noodle brands,
but I decided I would try to be fancy and make my own.
Inga actually has a video up on About to Eat
showing how she makes it, so I tried to follow
a rendition of that recipe.
So this is my version.
I'm really excited, I've never made this before
and it looks and smells bomb.
This sauce, I truly feel like there's no comparison
I could make to an American version.
It's so rich and creamy,
but the flavor's just completely different
from anything I have in any other cuisine.
Ooh, another fun thing I learned about V
is that he actually didn't plan on coming to audition
to be a Kpop idol.
He came to the auditions with a friend
just to keep him company and then, lo and behold,
actually turned out to be
one of the world's biggest pop stars, so.
Dinner time, I'm tired.
If you've ever seen BTS in an interview
where they ask where you like to eat
when you're in the States, nearly every time,
V will be very enthusiastic
about one restaurant in particular,
and that restaurant is Panda Express.
I couldn't find exactly what V likes to order
when he's there, but Panda Express actually has tweeted BTS
and they used the hashtag #OrangeChickenLove,
which made me think, "I better get orange chicken."
First piece of orange chicken in years, mm.
Wow, it is so sweet.
As I was watching these interviews
where V would exclaim his love for Panda Express,
and then a lot of the times, interviewers seem confused
and they'll say something maybe along the lines of,
- [Interviewer] Okay, came a long way for Asian food,
but it's probably not as good as you get back home.
- To be honest, I've never met an Asian person
that considers Panda Express to be Asian food.
It's like Americans cosplaying Chinese food
with Panda Express.
It's still delicious in its own way,
but I respectfully would not consider this Chinese food.
And of course, I couldn't end V's day
without giving a BTS fact,
and today's fact is that BTS
has broken multiple world records,
and as of this video, their most recent world record
has been most simultaneous viewers on a music video
on YouTube Premieres with their video for "Dynamite".
Suga is one of BTS's rappers,
and is just such a sweet little presence.
Suga has said that one of his greatest simple pleasures
in life is drinking iced Americano on an empty stomach,
so before I eat anything,
I've made myself an iced Americano.
Okay, I think I might've made it a little weak,
but it's not bad.
And for my actual breakfast, Suga is a big fruit guy.
That's right baby, we're eating hella tangerines
for breakfast today.
You can find literal compilations
of Suga just eating tangerines
because he enjoys them so much.
One interesting thing I learned about Suga,
his name, stage name, Suga,
is that it doesn't come from the sweetener.
It's actually from his old position
that he played in basketball, which was the shooting guard.
Shooting guard, Suga, ha ha.
If there's one thing that I feel
like BTS constantly eats together
and that they say that they enjoy together a lot,
that is fried chicken and beer.
There's something about Korean fried chicken specifically
just hits so different.
Oh my gosh, this smells so good!
Mm.
If you've never had Korean fried chicken, this is your sign.
Given that Suga's a big meat eater,
I figured that tonight was an appropriate night
to have galbi, which are Korean marinated short ribs.
Jasmine has a great recipe for this y'all can follow,
however I just got mine pre-marinated
from the Korean grocery store.
Even easier to cook and prep.
I'm so excited for this, this smells so incredible.
Mm.
You know what we haven't done yet today?
Our BTS fact.
Today's fact is that unlike a lot of other Kpop groups,
BTS actually writes their own songs,
and from my understanding,
it's generally a collaborative effort.
However, Suga has been known to say
that he is an extremely prolific songwriter
being able to write songs in one to two days,
which literally just blows my mind.
Okay, the day has finally come for Jin's day.
I'm so excited
because Jin is kind of the notorious eater of BTS.
He made his own mukbang eating show called Eat Jin
where he just bodies the most ridiculous volumes of food
and I love that for him.
He's also one of the main vocalists for the group,
and I think he has an incredible sense of humor.
Today's breakfast, I have to admit, I cannot guarantee
is one of Jin's favorite foods, but it's very Jin inspired.
One of his philosophies around food
that he mentioned in an Eat Jin episode
was that ramen seasoning, the little packet,
makes everything taste good.
So I figured I would try to make scrambled eggs
seasoned with ramen seasoning.
My eggs do smell a little bit like seafood ramen,
which is interesting.
But it's also making my mouth water.
Oh my gosh, it's not bad.
It tastes like when you put an egg in your ramen
and you scramble it in your soup, it tastes like that egg.
I think we can deduce that Jin was correct
in that ramen seasoning does make things taste really good.
One of my favorite things to watch Jin eat is noodles,
so I decided to make one of his apparent favorites,
and that is naengmyeon, which is my childhood favorite.
It is a cold buckwheat noodle soup
and it's super chewy and satisfying.
You can make it from scratch with the noodles
and then a beef based broth.
I just decided to get another instant packet,
which is super easy to make, very convenient
and just as satisfying in my opinion.
I like to top mine with some veggies and a boiled egg.
It's best on a very hot summer day
and it's just super refreshing.
Jin can probably shove it in his mouth all at once
the volume of noodles I have in my entire bowl.
Let's see how closely I can imitate
how Jin takes a giant bite.
Oh.
Okay, I immediately decided I don't like shoving
that many noodles in my mouth like Jin does,
but it's very impressive that he can do it.
I will also say, one of my favorite things about Jin,
just as a person, because we know each other so well,
is that one minute he can be shoving noodles into his mouth
like his life depends on it,
and then he'll go into an interview and introduce himself.
- Hello I'm Jin.
I'm Worldwide Handsome.
- Given that he was scouted for his good looks,
go off, Jin.
But I would love to have that level of confidence.
So Jin strikes me as a very fancy man
because he says that one of his favorite foods is lobster.
Class, I'm sitting in my family's fancy dining room today.
I know Jin has also said that he loves steak
and he eats three steaks a day.
As much as I wanted to do that,
I thought that I'd been doing a lot of beef already,
so I decided to go with lobster as our more exciting option.
I wasn't exactly sure how he likes his lobster prepared,
so I was looking online and there's a type of lobster
that is prepared and served as regular street food in Korea.
It's seasoned with gochujang and topped with cheese.
It looked super delicious so I tried my hand at making that.
Very nervous to see how it tastes.
The cheese feels weirdly placed.
I feel like it'd be better almost without the cheese.
It's probably my fault because I used Gouda and cheddar
instead of Gouda and mozzarella, but.
Little funky, but it's still good.
I'm gonna eat the whole thing.
And today's fun fact is that BTS's logo since 2017
is made up of two trapezoids.
It's meant to represent two doors opening outwards.
And then on the other hand, the logo for ARMY,
BTS's fan base, is those trapezoids reversed,
so it looks like the doors are opening inwards.
And those two together are supposed to represent
BTS and ARMY coming together as one,
which I think is so lovely and poetic of them.
- Pretty good.
- [Joelle] Okay, what would we rate it out of 10?
- That is pretty good.
I would say eight.
- Nice!
It is Jungkook day!
He's a dancer and vocalist for the group,
and he's also the youngest.
Listen, they call him the Golden Maknae
because he's good at everything,
and for that, we have to stan.
Apparently, he said that he's a big carb fan
and I've seen in a lot of behind the scenes clips
that he likes bananas and peanut butter.
He made himself this delicious looking
peanut butter Nutella banana toast,
and when I saw that, I was like,
"Oh my gosh, that's what I used to have after school
"when I was a little kid as a snack",
so I had to make it.
A+ for Jungkook's breakfast.
Given that Jungkook's a carb lover,
I feel like I had to make tteokbokki,
which is just a classic Korean dish.
It's literally spicy rice cakes
that are all stewed together.
Little bit of fish cakes, I like to add some veggies
and in all the eating compilations,
Jungkook's always eating noodles,
so I had to add some ramen.
It's a really common pairing in Korea
when you get tteokbokki, you can add ramen noodles,
you can add cheese on top, all these fun fixings.
So that's what I tried to make.
Oh, pretty good.
Hey, it's pretty good.
My sister.
There's a lot of different flavors going on.
We've got spice, we've got all this seafood,
we've got the sweetness.
Another random fun fact I learned about Jungkook
is that he actually is a big fan of body art.
He has I think over 11 tattoos.
I wanted to emulate Jungkook, so I got a temporary tattoo,
which my family will be much more on board with.
I got this tiger one though because Siberian tigers
are the national animal of Korea.
I am honestly really bummed,
this is my last BTS inspired meal.
I know Jungkook likes pizza, I like pizza,
so we're having pizza.
In clips of BTS having a little pizza party together,
I know RM mentioned something about a supreme pizza,
so I figured a supreme pizza was the way to go.
Pizza in Korea is actually super bomb.
You can get things like sweet potato crust,
which sounds weird I think to Americans
but it's really good, and just a lot of different toppings
that you wouldn't find in the States.
As I'm enjoying this,
might as well share our final BTS fact of this video,
and that is in 2018, BTS's album "Love Yourself: Tear"
was the first Kpop album to ever top the Billboard 200.
Dinner is over, I have my dessert.
I know that Jungkook is a big fan of sweets,
especially cookies, so I'm eating Oreos and drinking milk
out of a bowl I think.
It also seemed appropriate because Jungkook's character
that he made in collaboration with Line Friends,
the BT21 line, is literally named Cooky,
so gotta end my week with some cookies.
And I'm looking back at the photos
of all the different meals I had
and they all look so good,
but there could only be one winner.
One ultimate day from this eating like BTS week,
and my favorite day will probably have to be Suga's day,
because ever since that day, I have been in love
with iced Americanos and tangerines,
and you really can't beat Korean fried chicken.
Though I will say, RM's day with the kalguksu,
very close second.
But please let me know which day
you would have liked to eat,
which BTS member would you like to share
a day of meals with?
And before you go, oh my gosh, wait, you dropped something.
Bye.
(light music)